Hector filled in his cylinder with a platform and was soon atop the slab. Fog roiled violently around the edges of the metal, but for the moment, he had a perfectly clear view of the sky and Garovel.
‘It fled on your right,’ said the reaper. ‘Oh joy. It’s coming after me now.’
From outside the fog, Stoker came rocketing up toward Garovel. The reaper started back down toward Hector, and when Stoker’s swiping hands caught up with him, Garovel smoothly dodged a string of attacks. Then the creature had to back off when a javelin sailed between them.
Hector pressed his hands to the slab, and a curving wall leapt out of it. Garovel phased through the metal half-dome, and Hector expected Stoker to come flying over the top. He was proved correct and threw another javelin as soon as he saw the man. But even still, Stoker jetted out of its path, zigzagging to safety.
Hector growled. ‘How do I hit this damn thing?!’
‘You need to trap it,’ said Garovel. ‘If it can avoid your attack, then it almost certainly will. So come up with something unavoidable.’
He only had a moment to consider his options before Stoker barreled into him, carrying him away from the slab and fog both. Stoker bit into his arm, and Hector just ignored it, instead taking the opportunity to encase the man in metal.
They hit the dirt together, and Hector rolled away from the iron statue. And for a moment, when he saw Stoker again, he thought that might have been enough. But the coating didn’t last. Stoker broke out with brute force. Chunks of busted metal scattered around the creature as it returned to its feet.
Once again, Hector met its hollow gaze.
Then, without warning, there came a distant crack, and the creature’s body jerked backward as something tiny whizzed past its head.
Hector blinked. ‘What was that?’
‘A gunshot?’ said Garovel. ‘I think it came from the town.’
‘That was--? But it--wait. So this thing just dodged a fucking bullet?!’
Another gunshot, again avoided. Stoker looked in the direction of the town and then promptly sped off toward it.
‘What the--?’ And Hector realized. ‘Colt!’ He bolted after Stoker.
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
Well, two on one ought to be enough to deal with a mindless monster, even one with hydrogen super powers.
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't seem to jive with my understanding of servants and reapers. The reaper is the source of most of their power, their mobility, their energy to even move, let alone use abilities and most certainly to regenerate, which probably uses a lot. Killing the reaper should be a lot like unplugging a laptop: it runs on stored power for a little while and then it stops. The amount of time it lasts depends on how much it does, rather than how much time has passed. How can it possibly have this much to spend?
ReplyDeleteI'm inclined to agree with you...on all counts. I'm waiting til the end to give my thoughts
ReplyDeleteHe was *proved* correct --> proven correct, I think. I don't really remember if both are possible
ReplyDeleteThey're interchangeable, these days.
ReplyDeleteOh? I hadn't heard of 'proved' being used that way before. Well, looks like I learned something new today. Sorry for bothering you with that ^^"
ReplyDeleteOh, no worries. I'm in the middle of the compiling the second ebook right now, which the 4th - 6th Oaths are all part of, so any final grammar checks right now are VERY much appreciated.
ReplyDelete